Jawed Karim uploaded YouTube's first video titled 'Me at the zoo' on April 24, 2005. Since the upload, the third co-founder of the video-streaming platform has embraced an unconventional way to express his opinion regarding YouTube  — by editing the video's description. 

And he did the same after YouTube changed the dislike button in early November 2021. The platform admittedly removed the dislike count to counter harassment and promote respectful interactions between viewers and creators. 

But the software engineer couldn't agree less with the new decision. He initially changed the description of YouTube's first video, writing, "When every YouTuber agrees that removing dislikes is a stupid idea, it probably is. Try again, YouTube." 

Days after, he again edited the description with further elaboration on his opinion. 

Jawed Karim Predicts YouTube's Decline

Karim criticized YouTube's decision to remove dislike counts from videos through a new lengthy description of 'Me at the zoo' on November 17, 2021. At the beginning of his statement, the internet entrepreneur mentioned Matt Koval's announcement of the removal of dislike counts.

Then, he compared the video to the infamous footage of US soldier Jeremiah Denton's interview and wrote, "The spoken words did not match the eyes."

Karim stated he had never seen a "less enthusiastic, more reluctant announcement of something that is supposed to be great." He then weighed down on the update, stating, "there exists not a single YouTube Creator who thinks removing dislikes is a good idea." 

The 'Me at the zoo' guy heralded the update as the universally disliked change. As per his accounts, the ability to easily and quickly identify bad content was vital for user-generated content platforms. The dislike count helped expose glorious creations while sidelining weak contents.

Karim noted the process worked because of its users. Then he opined it was now flawed because the dislike count was only visible to its creator. With that, he predicted that the "platform invariably declines."

Karim stated nothing could be great if nothing was bad. He even questioned if YouTube wanted to be a platform where everything was mediocre. 

Many internet users rushed in to support Karim in the comment section of YouTube's first video, which has 10 million likes as of this time of writing. "Really smart way of using the description," one fan remarked. Another chimed in, saying he was glad to know Karim opposed the update on the dislike button.

A particular person even stated that the update was "a short-sighted blunder from the out-of-touch corporate decision-makers." Interestingly, the original content creators have also shared similar opinions.

For instance, PewDiePie slammed the platform through his video on November 11, 2021. He expressed he saw no point in removing the dislike count when creators could hide the dislike bar themselves if they wanted. "f it ain't broke, why fix it, right?" he stated, reasoning that there was no need for the change.